Ancestral Images - A Hong Kong Collection

Description

A new edition in one volume of Hugh Baker's celebrated three volumes of Ancestral Images originally published in 1979, 1980 and 1981. The 120 articles and photographs explore everyday life, customs and rituals in Hong Kong's rural New Territories. Each mouthful is complete in itself, but together the articles amount to a substantial feast. They investigate religion, food, language, history, festivals, family, strange happenings and clan warfare. The book documents much that can no longer be found. But it also provides an understanding of a world which has not yet entirely disappeared, and which still forms the background for life in modern, urban Hong Kong.

About Author

Hugh Baker is Emeritus Professor of Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has published books on Chinese kinship, Hong Kong history and culture, the overseas Chinese, and the Cantonese and Mandarin languages. His published articles cover a wide range of Chinese cultural topics including food, symbolism, death, xenophobia, clan, marriage, slang, minorities, fung shui, migration, and religion. He was chief editorial consultant to the twelve-part television series The Heart of the Dragon, and his much-repeated Baker's Dozen on Radio Television Hong Kong ran to four series each of thirteen talks. He served as Chinese language training adviser to the Hong Kong Government 1973-75, and frequently writes opinions and gives evidence in court on Chinese customary law.